This crunchy salad with a Hefeweizen-infused vinaigrette and bacon and blue cheese garnish is sure to please even the pickiest salad eater.
Active preparation time: 15 minutes
Total time: 20 minutes
Serves: 4
Vinaigrette
4 strips of bacon
½ cup (4 fl oz/118 ml) Hefeweizen beer
1 Tbs (½ fl oz/15 ml) sherry vinegar
1 Tbs orange zest
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp rosemary, finely chopped
1 cup (8 fl oz/237 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbs (½ fl oz/15 ml) reserved bacon drippings
Cook, drain, cool, and chop the bacon. Reserve the chopped bacon for the salad and the bacon drippings for the vinaigrette.
In a small bowl, combine the beer, vinegar, orange and lemon zest, and rosemary. Slowly add the olive oil, then the bacon drippings while whisking constantly. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
Salad
2 hearts of romaine lettuce
Reserved chopped bacon
4 oz (113 g) bleu cheese, crumbled
Kosher salt
Black pepper
Preheat a grill or grill pan on medium-high heat. Cut each romaine heart in half lengthwise. Grill cut side down for 1–2 minutes until slightly charred.
To plate, place 1 grilled romaine heart in the center of each plate. Top each romaine heart with ¼ of the chopped bacon and crumbled bleu cheese. Spoon ¼ of the Citrus Hefeweizen Vinaigrette over each romaine heart and around the plate.
If you don’t like bleu cheese, you can substitute feta. You could also add orange segments to the salad for more citrus flavor.
Beer Suggestions: Sierra Nevada Kellerweis Hefeweizen (Chico, California), Tröegs DreamWeaver Wheat (Hershey, Pennsylvania), Victory Winter Cheers (Downingtown, Pennsylvania).